In the 1990s, Punk was about to explode into the mainstream with bands like The Offspring, Greenday and Blink 182. Many
punks considered those bands to be pop-punks and Blink 182 were often cited as being to immature and cliche to be considered
a punk band. Despite these criticisms those 3 bands proved to be some of the most popular bands of the decade and into the
21st century.

Green Day are credited with being the first "nu-wave 90s punk" band, yet they formed in 1988. The band hail from
the punk rock capital of Southern California Their commercial success didn't begin until their third album
'Dookie' was released in 1994. They then left independant label "Lookout" to sign to major label 'Reprise'. This was widely
regarded as selling out in the punk community, yet their fans remained. This was the definative breakthrough punk album of
the 1990s, yet it is often criticised as merely being a fad or pop-trash. This label would stick with Green Day until the
current day, leaving them outside the group of "real" punk bands which the punk community idolise.

Green Day may have been the first pop-punk band of the 1990s, they were by no means the only one. The Offspring's third
album 'Smash' released in 1994, a mere 3 months after Green Day's Dookie and was a massive success, prompting them to
move to a major label, rather than the independent label 'Epitaph'. Regarded as having sold out, the band lost thier original
fan base, yet their new fan base turned out to be a bigger success for the band, albiet a less punk route was taken. The band
had more political and meaningful songs than Green Day (such as Baghdad) yet they also performed many pop-punk ditties, such
as the popular "Pretty Fly for a white Guy" in 1998, which made them MTV regulars.

Both Green Day and The Offspring were popular and a fine example of Pop-Punk it wasn't until Blink 182's 1999 album "Enema
of the State" was the genre truely refined and marketed to the masses. Using toilet humour, up-beat music and quick tempos
the band easily developed a large fan base, very few of whom ever questioned the band to be a "real punk rock group". The
the larger punk community were not impressed. The band went to top 10 in the mainstream charts in America, the UK and Australia
showing that their appeal was gloabl. The band are credited as being the real pop-punk band.

The Punk scene was now seen as being in a state of decay according to the original or true to original punks. This trend
would continue into the 21st century except for some obvious exceptions...